Need help making a desision choosing video cards.

I do plan to purchase a computer soon. Due to a disability i wont be able to assemble one myself so im quite dependant on places like Ibuypower.com and cyberpower.com (i wonder if there are others) Well the point is i know what I want.....except the grafics card.

I plan to go with ati this time around but I am not sure if i should go with a 7970 or 2 7870s both configurations run about the same price but donno which will offer me better preformance. I do not plan to overclock.

I just want my computer for gaming and atleast to multi task on two monitors.

So what would be best. 1 card or crossfiring two cards?

I should add. Should I bother with windows 8, I am hearing rumors that one has to repurchase software that you have already purchased for them to work which seems a bit farfetched to me but still there seems to be many complains about it. Or should I just stick to windows 7.

Hmm wondering if i should go for 32gigs of ram instead of 16 but that will buff the price tag a bit.

Thanks.
I did ask a rep at one of the places, I guess they did recommend crossfiring 2 7870s over a 7970 since ill end up spending a bit more money getting a bigger powersupply and whatnot. So far many are pointing against this and i would like to get more opinions about this. If more can add their thoughts that would be deeply appreciated.

Also why I am at it. How big of a difference and if its even noticable in gaming when it comes to processors. Im stumped in between the intel i5 3570k or the intel i7 3770k.

Thanks.
I did ask a rep at one of the places, I guess they did recommend crossfiring 2 7870s over a 7970 since ill end up spending a bit more money getting a bigger powersupply and whatnot. So far many are pointing against this and i would like to get more opinions about this. If more can add their thoughts that would be deeply appreciated.

Also why I am at it. How big of a difference and if its even noticable in gaming when it comes to processors. Im stumped in between the intel i5 3570k or the intel i7 3770k.

Definitely stick with the one card. At 1080p Resolution a 7950 or 7970 will max out pretty much any game. This is a build I made on IBuyPower's website, which I can recommend as I've bought two system from them for family members. You're going to be paying a premium though to have it built. Do you have any local computer stores near you? You mentioned you cannot put it together yourself, but I would definitely check around to see if any of them would put it together for you. I'm not sure what your disability entails, but this would allow you to get exactly the parts you want. Shops around my area charge $50-100 for this. Honestly, the markup online isn't that much anymore. Comparing the build that I made on IBP and ordering the actual parts, IBP was actually cheaper than ordering the parts and assembling it yourself. I couldn't get exact specifications on some of the parts, but here's the PP link for the identical build. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/znv4 After shipping, you're looking at basically the same price.

Edit: If I were going to go with a build right now, this is what I would go with; http://pcpartpicker.com/p/znBr
I'm using a Gigabyte 7950 currently, clocked up to 1100/1400 from stock clocks 900/1250, which should put it over the performance of a Stock 7970 such as the one you're getting with the previous build I mentioned. This build includes a modular PSU, a 128GB SSD, and a 1TB WD black instead of a Hitachi which have a reputation of failure before they should.

Definitely stick with the one card. At 1080p Resolution a 7950 or 7970 will max out pretty much any game. This is a build I made on IBuyPower's website, which I can recommend as I've bought two system from them for family members. You're going to be paying a premium though to have it built. Do you have any local computer stores near you? You mentioned you cannot put it together yourself, but I would definitely check around to see if any of them would put it together for you. I'm not sure what your disability entails, but this would allow you to get exactly the parts you want. Shops around my area charge $50-100 for this. Honestly, the markup online isn't that much anymore. Comparing the build that I made on IBP and ordering the actual parts, IBP was actually cheaper than ordering the parts and assembling it yourself. I couldn't get exact specifications on some of the parts, but here's the PP link for the identical build. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/znv4 After shipping, you're looking at basically the same price.

Edit: If I were going to go with a build right now, this is what I would go with; http://pcpartpicker.com/p/znBr
I'm using a Gigabyte 7950 currently, clocked up to 1100/1400 from stock clocks 900/1250, which should put it over the performance of a Stock 7970 such as the one you're getting with the previous build I mentioned. This build includes a modular PSU, a 128GB SSD, and a 1TB WD black instead of a Hitachi which have a reputation of failure before they should.

I like this website. Its peeps like you that can make one smile. I wonder how you got just about the same build as i was going for, for 40$ less 0.o (on ibuypower) I am using your configuration to place my order as it will turn out cheaper. I guess the sale going on has to do with the price.

---------- Post added 2013-01-24 at 08:05 PM ----------

So i bought it. It came out to $1221 after tweaking it a bit here and there. I went with another mother board and decided to go for 16 gigs of ram yeah i know overkill. almost $1300 after shipping.http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/espec.aspx?eid=184212
Thats what it ended up and quite alot of freebies to boot.

I just replaced my aging video card with a GTX 660 TI and I also dropped in another 4 gig of ram for a total of 8gig... there isn't a game on the market that the 660 ti cant crush, and It is fairly cheap, $300.00 or so.

I was running dual AMD HD5770's in crossfire. fair warning though, a lot of games still do not support multiple video cards and require you to disable the 2nd card to play... gets pretty annoying if you play a lot of older games especially.

Just another side note Beware of sights like cyberpower and ibuypower. I purchased 2 computers from them several years ago one of them caught on fire (they cable tied the wiring to the hard drive cage so tightly it shorted out) the other was a complete lemon.. When my hard drive died I called the manufacturer to get it replaced and they said that it was a referbished drive. The told me I had to contact Cyberpower because there was no warranty on it. Apparently they use a lot of referb stuff in their machines and pass it off as new. That is why their machines are cheaper than you can buy new parts.

Your best bet is to find a friend with some computer skills and have them do it for you. Newegg.com has decent prices, and rock solid customer support if you ever have a problem. Ask around, you will be surprised most nerdy computer kids like me jump at the chance to build and mess around with a new rig. I'm sure you can find someone to help.

Last edited by Bremmon; 2013-01-25 at 12:52 PM.

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